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Nilanjana Dasgupta

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Research Area(s):

Social Psychology

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Research

Big Picture

A central theme in social psychology is that people’s attitudes and behavior are frequently shaped by factors that lie outside their awareness and cannot be fully understood by self-reflection and self-report. Although individuals think their attitudes and actions are always guided by conscious awareness, intention, and control, research shows that they are routinely buffeted by situational forces without awareness. For example, even though people’s explicit or conscious attitudes and actions toward social groups may be unbiased, their implicit attitudes and actions are often biased in favor of groups that are privileged in society or against groups that are disadvantaged because stereotypic cues in everyday situations guide these responses without awareness and intention.

For many decades the dominant assumption in social psychology was that implicit prejudice and stereotypes are stable and resistant to change at least in the short term and that attitude change requires awareness of one’s bias, effortful re-learning, motivation, or large-scale societal changes. Because psychological theories frame attitude change as an effortful re-learning process that requires conscious mental processes, such change seemed less likely for implicit attitudes that bypass awareness, control, and effort.

My research challenges the assumption that implicit prejudice and stereotypes are immutable and identifies circumstances under which they can be changed. Some of my projects identify conditions that reduce implicit bias while other projects identify conditions that magnify implicit bias. Some projects focus on changing implicit stereotypes about outgroups whereas others focus on changing the impact of ingroup stereotypes on individuals’ own self-concept and life decisions.

NOTICE: The following linked articles have been password protected in accordance with current web publishing copyright laws. To obtain a copy of the document password, please send an email to dasgupta@psych.umass.edu—the password will be sent to you. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Publicationsin chronological order:

Dasgupta, N. (2015). Role models and peers as a social vaccine to enhance women's self-concept in STEM. The American Society for Cell Biology. Retrieved from http://www.ascb.org/role-models-and-peers-as-a-social-vaccine-to-enhance-womens-self-concept-in-stem/. [get paper]

Dasgupta, N. (2013). Implicit attitudes and beliefs adapt to situations: A decade of research on the malleability of implicit prejudice, stereotypes, and the self-concept. In P.G. Devine and E.A. Plant (Eds.). Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 233-279. UK: Academic Press. [get paper]

Yogeeswaran, K., Dasgupta, N., & Gomez, C. (2012). A new American dilemma? The effect of ethnic identification and public service on the national inclusion of ethnic minorities. European Journal of Social Psychology. 42(6), 691-705. [get paper]

Yogeeswaran, K., Dasgupta, N., Adelman, L., Eccelston, A., & Parker, M. (2011). To be or not to be (ethnic): The hidden cost of ethnic identification for Americans of European and non-European origin. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 908-914. [get paper]

Dasgupta, N., & Yogeeswaran, K. (2011). Obama-Nation? Implicit beliefs about American nationality and the possibility of redefining who counts as “truly” American. In G.S. Parks & M.W. Hughey (Eds.). The Obamas and a (Post)-Racial America? New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [get paper]

Faigman, D. L., Dasgupta, N., & Ridgeway, C. L. (2008). A matter of fit: The law of discrimination and the science of implicit bias. University of California Hastings Law Journal, 60, 1389-1434. [get paper]

Banaji, M.R., & Dasgupta, N. (1998). The consciousness of social beliefs: A program of research on stereotyping and prejudice. In V.Y. Yzerbyt, G. Lories, & B. Dardenne (Eds.), Metacognition: Cognitive and social dimensions. Great Britain: Sage Publications. [get paper]

Manuscripts under review or in preparation:

Asgari, S., Dasgupta, N & Stout, J. G. (invited revision). When do role models help vs. hurt? The effectiveness of counterstereotypic role models in changing implicit self- stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.